The invention relates to food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and textile industry and it may be used in production of alcoholic and soft drinks, confectionery, products made of sour milk, for coloring of tablet capsules, dying of children""s underwear, toys, etc.
Anthocyanic colorants are known to be made of mulberries, grapes, black-currant, black ash-berries, hollyhock, cellular tissues of carrots (UK Patent Application No. 8612587, filed in 1986; RF Patent No. 2057153, 1996; Food Ingredients, Primary Materials and Food Additives No. 1, 2000). Besides, there are processes of producing anthocyanic colorants from various plants, for example red grapes, cake of black ash-berry, hollyhock petals, etc. Such colorants suffer from the following drawbacks: low content of coloring matter, low thermo- and photostability, limited spectrum of colors. At the same time, as it may be seen from the above said, the anthocyanic colorants are made of berries and their cake, i.e. seasonal and perishable materials, and it makes the colorants production a multi-step and complicated process technologically and expensive financially. So, the drawback of the above mentioned processes is that the colorant production is a multi-step process due to low pigment content in the primary material, and besides the process is not efficient for other types of primary materials (RF Patent No. 2099376 to V. M. Bolotov et al, 1995).
Natural edible colorant made of hollyhock petals is the closest prototype of the proposed one (international Application PCT/SU88/00009, grade C 09 B 61/00, dated Jan. 12, 1988, International Publication WO 89/06671 dated Jul. 27, 1989). This colorant is an extract from anthocyanic primary material that includes the following components: glycosides of cyanidin, peonidin, delphinidin, petunidin and/or malvidin. The closest method to the proposed one is colorant production from vegetable materials that includes extraction of anthocyanic materials by aqueous solution of acid and/or alcohol in ultrasonic vibration field, extract separation and concentration to get the final product (RF Patent No. 2077543 grade C09B61/00, 1994).
The drawback of this colorant is that it has low stability while being stored both in pure form and in products where it is used, besides, the mentioned colorant has limited spectrum of colors, which constricts the sphere of its application. Drawbacks of the above method include impossibility to obtain concentrated colorant, high consumption of extracting agent and low output from primary materials containing anthocyan.
The object of this invention is to obtain natural anthocyanic red colorant that will have a wide spectrum of colors, high thermo- and photo-stability, easy production process, that will be based on use of new primary materials, which provide for production of the colorant in any volume irrespective of season and any other factors.
The invention is based on the object to prepare edible colorant from vegetable primary materials by changing and selection of certain components ratio as well as by changing conditions of extraction process from vegetable primary materials, and to develop a process of production thereof. The colorant shall be of high quality, stability, shall have wide spectrum of colors, wide field of application, including production of non-alcoholic tonic of high quality and stable color.
The specified object is achieved by adding pelargonidin glycosides into natural colorant that contains cyanidin glycosides, peonidin glycosides, organic substance and mineral salts. The percentage of components mass shall be as follows, %:
Due to the fact that the colorant solution contains pelergonidin glycoside further to cyanidin and peonidin glycosides, the proposed colorant has expanded color spectrum as it is known that cyanidin is of crimson color, peonidin is pink and purple and pelargonidin is scarlet. Combination of these three anthocyans in the proposed colorant shall provide for the most rich spectrum of red colors. At the same time the ratio of pelargonidin glycoside:peonidine glycoside:cyanidin glycoside must be 1:1.5:2, respectively, and it will provide for preparation of a colorant with a number of important physical properties. Namely, the colorant remains red when pH of the environment is not more than 7, it is thermostable, photostable and maintains its properties during 2 (two) years, besides, its relative optical density will be the highest when it is subjected to the light with wavelength of 505-515 nm. The colorant prepared with the following components ratio has the form of transparent thick liquid of murrey color, which is completely soluble in water and aqueous solutions of ethyl alcohol, with a smell of the primary material and a sour taste. Percentage of dry substance mass is minimum 20, mass proportion of coloring matter is minimum 40 g/l. The proposed colorant is an extract from vegetable materials containing anthocyan. Diversity of its color spectrum shall be provided by different types of anthocyans, their volume and their ratio. Chromatographic examination confirmed that the colorant contained three basic anthocyanides, namely cyanidin (crimson), peonidin (pink and purple) and pelargonidin (scarlet). Organic substance and mineral salts were also discovered in the colorant solution. The proposed colorant has been tested for toxicity on laboratory animals. Testing results prove that the colorant does not contain toxic matter and makes no changes in condition of laboratory animals. Besides, the proposed colorant is an extract of vegetable materials, it contains bio active compounds extracted from primary material. Availability of bio active matter shall increase the quality of the proposed colorant.